A New Pose

 With all the chipmunk pictures I've taken over the years, this is a completely new pose. It was running away from me and just stopped with its hips spread wide, ready to leap at a moment's notice. Which it did!

I guess the pose isn't new for me, but the background for the shadow is. There is so much algae piled up along the shore of Lincoln Lake it's solid green. It made a nice picture.

By contrast, the lake was bright blue. The weather has cooled a bit. It felt great. Just right for a walk before bell choir practice.

This is a nice park with a paved trail circling through it. I don't walk here as often as I might because it gets a lot of use, and I prefer more solitude and natural trails. There is a non-paved mountain bike route through it which I often walk, but it's really for cyclists, and I hate it when I get "caught" on their trail. Walkers disrupt their riding.

This is a part of the trail beside the lake, but the important thing to notice here is the white tree tubes. There has recently been a big project to remove alien Oriental Bittersweet and Tree-of-Heaven (Ailanthus). There are native trees being planted in their place (currently protected in the tubes), but I don't know what.

Another nice feature along the water is this large gazebo. There are native plantings around it too, but I wasn't able to get any decent pictures. The flowers are really well past prime here.

A lot of the paved trail isn't very picturesque, but this curve always looks inviting.

It smelled like fall in the park- that unmistakable scent of autumn aspen.

I spent most of the day on my "project," which although I'm pretty obsessed, isn't really a priority. Sigh. I need to divert my attention to more important things. This walk only managed to get me 2.3 miles before bell choir.

Miles walked in 2024: 470.9

See Six Miles with Cathy

Blue Sky, Blue Water

  Mostly I painted today, white on white. But the color of the day outside was BLUE.

What an exquisite color!

Made a quick stop at Lincoln Lake to catch the color of the water.

It would be nearly impossible for me to be anything but happy with the world sharing these colors today!

In other news: I ran some errands and am working hard on an editing project.

See Not Quite Spring

Walkin' and Talkin'

  Cathy was out of town last week, so we had a lot to talk about when we got together today. It must have made us walk fast! It almost felt like spring, but this is Michigan, so don't get too excited. However, the sun was out and it was over 40 degrees! This is some unnamed creek that flows into the Lincoln River. Quite a pretty scene for in town- sure it was residential, not downtown, but still nice.

It was growing a healthy crop of watercress. The key feature here is that it is GREEN! With no Philadelphia Flower Show this year, I'm going to be in serious need of green things.

The Lincoln River and upper end of Lincoln Lake are frozen solid.

Here's today's mystery item. This board had some things screwed to it. Maybe some sort of electrical relays or circuits? What from a distance I thought was rusted metal is just where the surface of the board has been scored to hold whatever was fastened on it. But it sure made an interesting pattern.

We walked 4.5 miles in less than 1.5 hours. Lovely day. Felt good to be crankin' out some miles.

In other news: I edited/formatted all day until I met Cathy and then had bell choir practice, and then a zoom event this evening. I'm beat!

See Urban Forest Trails

Duck, Duck... (Walk)... Puzzle

  Cathy and I did a fast four miles between her work and my bell practice today. We started at Lincoln Lake where we saw this pair of Common Goldeneye ducks from the bridge over the lake.

Our road loop took us around to the north side of Lincoln Lake. From here, it looks small, just peeking through the trees.

The final side of the loop had us walking west toward Lake Michigan. What you need to know is that between Lincoln Lake and Lake Michigan is the private community of Epworth. I've mentioned this place a few times in the past when I was allowed inside (because of the job I had at the time). The important thing in this picture is that pointy hill. To be more precise, that pointy sand dune. I left all the urban mess in the picture to give you the scale. You can see a picture of this hill in summer in the link below, and some pictures taken from about 2/3 of the way up that hill. In the winter, you really can see the bare bones of the dune.

We did an extra block into Cartier Park (to make it to 4 miles) and returned to the more-often-seen view of Lincoln Lake where we were parked.

As for the puzzle- I finished the hard one. I thought it was going to be very, very hard. I would say it turned out to be only hard. It did take me quite a while for having only 550 pieces. But I thought the colored rocks within the Michigan shape would be tricky. They weren't. So the only really hard part was the blue. It's called Michigan Natures Gift. (Don't tell me that should have an apostrophe. I am only copying what's on the box.)

In other news: I did my class, I edited. Then walk and bell practice.

See Lincoln Lake from Above

Cartier Park Quickie

  Cathy and I met this afternoon for a fast four miles at Cartier Park in Ludington. Covid cases have been on the rise here, so we kept our distance, but it was nice to chat a bit.

There weren't a lot of photo opportunities today. The best is the view of Lincoln Lake with light coming from under the clouds.

A rock covered with moss and a chalky corner broken out. That seemed a little odd.

I liked the jelly-roll log quite a bit. In better light this has possibilities to be an interesting picture.

There were lots and lots of squirrels out, both the regular gray ones and the black color morph. But none of them was very interested in having their picture taken.

We walked about four miles on the loopy bicycle trail. That was nice- to be off pavement. I took more pictures, but none of them are really much good. Then I went to bell choir practice. So far, we are still being allowed to practice.

In other news: I wrote 859 words for Dead Mule Swamp Singer. That's about all- oh, a tiny tiny bit of cleaning.

See Cartier Park- Ludington

Singin' Between the Rains

 
Cathy and I had tentatively agreed to walk together today after she finished work and before I had to be at bell practice. But then it rained early afternoon. And then it stopped raining! We managed a dry walk. Even the tree was singing.



We did a three-mile loop that included some streets and the paved trail at Cartier Park. Lincoln Lake was gray beneath the cloudy skies, but a water view is always welcome.



I think this polypore is the same kind I saw on my Midland to Mackinac hike last year. It seems to go nuts in the fall and cover every inch of some fallen log.



The fall colors aren't very intense here yet. But a few trees are starting to get colorful. I actually like the subtle bands of color in the first picture as much as the bright single trees of the other two.







It was nice to get caught up with Cathy. The "urban walk" was perfect for the day because it didn't involve any extra driving miles.

Oh, and it started raining again just as we finished!

In other news: I wrote in the morning, and worked on formatting some in the afternoon. Then walked and had bell choir practice.

	See a similar polypore See Lincoln River Continued
if you like this blog, click

Cartier Park- Ludington

 
Since I ended up with a lot of extra time in town yesterday, I decided to walk the loop trail at Cartier Park. It's only a bit over a mile, but I managed to make it longer.

This park is about a half mile on each side, and goes through some nice mature woods.



The loop is a paved trail. It gets a lot of use in all the ways you'd expect for an urban (small city) trail. But it's nicely shaded and very pleasant. The north edge runs along Lincoln Lake, so you get a good "water-view fix" on the way.



I got sort of decent pictures of a couple more dragonflies. Actually, the first is a damselfly- they hold their wings parallel to their body. I THINK this is an Eastern Forktail, but identifying in the field, especially when you don't know all that much about Odonata, is a challenge. But all one can do is try to begin sorting them out, and you learn a little more each time. It's also extra hard from a picture. Finding ones that have died, so you can really look at them is the best. It's even better if you have the insect and the book in the same place.



On the next lily pad over was a dragonfly. The book says this kind is even harder to identify in the field. At first I thought it was some kind of clubtail. See the thickened segments near the end of its tail? But none of those in my book had a single yellow spot. I didn't get good focus on the thorax, but even so, that single yellow spot on segment 7 of the tail makes me think it's an Illinois River Cruiser, a general term for about seven different species.



And, I found several patches of another fern- one I knew from before, but hadn't seen them locally. This is New York Fern. No spores on the backs of the leaves yet. I'll have to try to get back there some time to picture those.



And I just liked how annoyed this red-wing blackbird looks.



The really big news is that the Shoreline Cycling Club has added a long, loopy mountain bike trail to the park. This is great, because formerly everyone just rode bikes all over the place and were making a real mess. Now there's an actual trail to follow. I walked part of this. It didn't say no foot traffic, and I would have yielded to any cyclists in a hurry.

So, I've updated my Get Off The Couch website with this new information. See Cartier Park

In other news: It took me till mid-afternoon, but I got all the rest of the journal for the Arrowhead hike turned into digital files! Tomorrow I can start making notes. Simultaneously, I worked on a bunch of stuff for the July author event the Ludington Writers is hosting. And then I updated the site mentioned above. Worked on pictures some too. Got a lot done, but tomorrow I have to clean up the house!

	See Lincoln River Continued
if you like this blog, click

Lincoln River Continued

 
Today I went out to find the pieces of the Lincoln River downstream of where I previously reported. Actually, they overlap a bit because somehow I missed one road crossing when I did that little quest. Six years ago- that seems impossible- but it's true.

Everything upstream from here, to the source, was followed at North Branch Lincoln River

Here are the five places I took pictures today.



Somehow, I skipped the crossing of Stiles Road back then, so here it is today. This is the upstream view.



From there, I went downstream to Victory Corners Road. This is the last road crossing before the South and North Branches join. I'd like to get a picture of the confluence, but it's all on private land, and I don't know whose. I'd have to just go knocking on doors and try to find out and get permission. Maybe someday. This is the view downstream. You can't quite see to the confluence although I don't think it's too much farther.



Incidentally, I commented in 2012 that I thought maybe one could kayak anywhere below Darr Road (about 6 miles upstream from here). But no one ever does. For one thing, a couple of the road crossings are culverts (although large), so a portage might be necessary. Also, a couple of the places at road crossings are lawns. I don't know what the laws are about taking a craft out of the water to cross a road when it's right by someone's house.

Here's where we go under Fisher Road. This one is a bridge. And now we are in the Lincoln River proper. It's about seven river miles from here to Lake Michigan. View is downstream.



From this point, there is a long distance till the next road crossing. And the map looks as if there is a bit of topography along the banks, so this might be interesting. I'm sure you could paddle upstream to and beyond here from Lincoln Lake. You can see a bit of the hills on the left of the picture. This is looking upstream from Jebavy Drive.



From this point, I drove along Riverview Drive, but there aren't many river views. Probably from the upper floor of some of the houses along it. I got a bit of a glimpse of where the river opens out into Lincoln Lake, but the picture isn't worth sharing.

So, the final two pictures today are taken from near the middle of Lincoln Lake. The first one looks upstream, and the second one is downstream toward Lake Michigan. The bridge you see is the one I showed you on Saturday from the other side.





To finish the downstream journey, see Lincoln Lake from Above,

and Lincoln River, Where it Ends

I've identified the source of the South Branch. This is a short river, entirely within Mason County, so it's reasonable that I could go out and connect up the South Branch one of these days.

I know the pictures look very similar, but this is a lot of fun for me, to follow a river like this, even if I can't do it under muscle power. Probably some more pix tomorrow that aren't of the actual river.

if you like this blog, click the +1   or